Accumulated sales of Kia's K-series breaks 5 million

Published : May 14, 2017 - 16:15 Updated : May 14, 2017 - 17:53

South Korea’s No. 2 automobile manufacturer Kia Motors’ combined sales of its K-series surpassed 5 million units, the company said Sunday.

The accumulated overseas sales of the series reached 4.1 million, while domestic sales marked some 920,000 units, as of April this year, it said.

Of the total 4.1 million overseas sales, 1.28 million units were manufactured in South Korea.

The K-series has accounted for more than 30 percent of Kia Motor‘s total sales each year since 2009, when the K-series was first introduced in the market.

Kia’s 2017 K7 /Kia Motors

In 2009, K-series sales stood at 5,644 units. The numbers surged to 133,256 units in the following year and marked a record high of 983,250 units in 2014, when the K-series accounted for 32.3 percent of Kia Motor’s total sales.

The most popular model was the K-5, also known as Optima, which posted accumulated sales of 1.9 million units since it was released in 2010.

The K-3 and K-2 followed at 1.78 million units and 840,509 units sold, respectively.

Hyundai‘s sister company has recently been adding more models to its lineup, including the K-5 hybrid and plug-in version of the same model to better capture a wider range of customers.

The K-7, a sedan also known as Cadenza, marked sales of 50,000 units after being launched last year.

By Shim Woo-hyun (ws@heraldcorp.com)